RED SOX: Desperation at third base?

Call-up of Rafael Devers to play third base indicates that the Sox are desperate for offensive production.

Tim Britton, Providence Journal

It is never a word a team wants associated with its decision to promote a top prospect. It is never a word a team wants associated with any of its roster moves.

It’s the word that quickest comes to mind, though, with Boston’s move to call up Rafael Devers on Monday.

Desperate.

While Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski would never use that adjective himself to describe handing over the reins at third base to a 20-year-old in July, there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence that points to this move as one motivated less by Devers’ development than by desperation.

After Monday night’s shutout in Seattle, the Sox have scored just 53 runs in their last 17 games, or barely three per contest. They’re 6-11 in that span. The best potential fit on the trade market was dealt to a rival in the division last week, and the remaining external candidates are uninspiring.

And so, Devers is the best option in Boston’s estimation. He is far from an ideal one.

“If you had your ideal scenario, you’d say just let him continue to go out and play third base and play there (in Triple-A Pawtucket),” Dombrowski told reporters Sunday in Anaheim. “But the situation, we’re in need here, and we think he’s ready.”

That’s a relatively swift change in stance from where Dombrowski and the Red Sox had been all season. The club had preached patience with the precocious 20-year-old, consistently saying promotions involving Devers would be motivated by his performance rather than team needs.

In fact, the Red Sox seemed at times overly patient with Devers, keeping him in Double-A as they tried out Pablo Sandoval and Jhonny Peralta at third in Pawtucket earlier this month.

Just last week, shortly after Devers’ promotion to the PawSox, Dombrowski reiterated that long-held point.

“You know how good a player he is and is going to become,” Dombrowski said during an appearance on NESN’s pregame show. “But you have to be careful that you don’t do things that hurt him and his overall development as a player. ... He’s only 20. We want to make sure before we bring him up that he’s prepared as well as he possibly can.”

Nine games at the Triple-A level, over which Devers hit .400 but committed four errors, hardly seem like the best possible preparation, and it is perplexing that the Red Sox waited as long as they did to promote Devers to Triple-A if they felt a call-up to the majors was this imminent.

This feels more like improvisation than the result of a patient plan, and that’s been the case with too many of Boston’s moves on the infield — and in particular at third base — this season.

This isn’t the first time this season the Red Sox have either promoted or activated an infielder before their stated preference. In fact, on four previous occasions this season the Sox have activated an infielder off the disabled list before they planned to because they lacked depth on the infield. It’s happened with Josh Rutledge, Sandoval, Dustin Pedroia and most recently with Brock Holt.

The club’s entire approach to third base this season has been imperfect. The Sox gambled that Sandoval could be productive and healthy, following two seasons in which he was neither. (One wonders if the Red Sox relied too much on the premise that Sandoval’s 2015 struggles were the result of complacency and a lack of conditioning, rather than the continuation of a years-long decline in production. His OPS has steadily declined since 2011, with this year representing just another step down.)

Plan B was a platoon of Holt and Rutledge, themselves health risks having missed significant time in 2016 and never guarantees to produce at a level commensurate with the position. Both have been injured for much of the year and largely ineffective when playing.

Marco Hernandez lacked experience at third — and it showed defensively prior to his season-ending injury.

With his start at third on Tuesday night against Seattle’s Felix Hernandez, Devers became the seventh Red Sox starter at the position this season. That doesn’t include the emergency innings spent there by catcher Christian Vazquez or outfielder Steve Selsky.

Dombrowski and manager John Farrell acknowledged Sunday that Devers is still undergoing some development, and the team will have to ease him into action.

So while Devers may be the best internal option for the Red Sox right now, it’s worth wondering whether he’s as good an option as he could have been by now.

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